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2015 Keynote Speaker Announcement!

We are thrilled to announce that Richard Louv will be the keynote speaker at the Early Learning Institute this summer! We have been greatly inspired by his work and are excited to have him join us in Knoxville this summer. Please read on to learn more about his work, achievements and life. We are thankful for the East Tennessee Foundation for their sponsorship of Mr. Louv’s speaking engagement!

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Richard Louv is a journalist and author of eight books about the connections between family, nature and community. His book THE NATURE PRINCIPLE: Human Restoration and the End of Nature-Deficit Disorder (Algonquin Books, 2011), offers a new vision of the future, in which our lives are as immersed in nature as they are in technology. This future, available to all of us right now, offers better psychological, physical and spiritual health for people of every age.

THE NATURE PRINCIPLE: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age,(Algonquin) is available in paperback edition.

LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder (Algonquin Books), translated into 13 languages and published in 20 countries, has stimulated an international conversation about the relationship between children and nature. Louv is co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Children & Nature Network (www.childrenandnature.org), an organization helping build the movement to connect today’s children and future generations to the natural world. Louv coined the term Nature-Deficit Disorder® which has become the defining phrase of this important issue.

In 2008, he was awarded the Audubon Medal, presented by the National Audubon Society. Prior recipients have included Rachel Carson, E. O. Wilson and President Jimmy Carter. Louv is also the recipient of the Cox Award for 2007, Clemson University’s highest honor, for “sustained achievement in public service” and has been a Clemson visiting professor. Among other awards, Louv is the recipient of the 2008 San Diego Zoological Society Conservation Medal, the 2008 George B. Rabb Conservation Medal from the Chicago Zoological Society, and the 2009 International Making Cities Livable Jane Jacobs Award. He also serves as Honorary Co-chairman, with artist Robert Bateman, of Canada’s national Children and Nature Alliance.

Louv has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times of London, and other major publications. He has appeared on many national TV shows, including NBC’s Today Show and Nightly News, CBS Evening News, ABC’s Good Morning America, and NPR’s Morning Edition, Fresh Air, and Talk of the Nation. Between 1984 and 2007 he was a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune and has been a columnist and member of the editorial advisory board for Parents magazine. Louv served as an advisor both to the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World award program and to the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. He is on the board of directors of ecoAmerica; on the editorial board of Ecopsychology, and a member of the Citistates Group. He has appeared before the Domestic Policy Council in the White House as well as at major governmental and professional conferences, nationally and internationally, and as keynote speaker at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference.

In April 2012, Richard gave the closing keynote at the first White House Summit on Environmental Education. For more information, visit www.RichardLouv.com.

He is married to Kathy Frederick Louv and the father of two young men, Jason, 30 and Matthew, 24. He would rather hike than write.